Photo-A-Day #1833
Tonight at our Financial Peace University class we decided to have a little “shredding party”. From the start of the class everyone was asked to hang on to all of their “offers to go into debt”. I brought my dad’s giant shredder over and my waste basket one too. We shredded so much that we filled both of them up, after tamping them down a couple of times too.
| As I looked at the offers go into the shredder I noticed the marketing that was being used. Chase Freedom really hit me because while the credit card is being marketed to me as a way to financial freedom it is actually the exact opposite that it offers me. Think about it. Sure you have the freedom to buy whatever you’d like with a credit card but then you have to pay that money back with interest. Once we are out of debt I am going to add up all the interest that we have payed since 1993 (the year I got my first CC, in college) and see what that would have been now if I put that money in a mutual fund. Why… well, because I’d like to cry. |
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Credit cards certainly do not make you free. You will “Chase” Freedom your whole life if you continue to use credit cards. So as I saw this offer shredded I thought about how freedom, true freedom financially means never having to be in debt to anyone ever again. It can be done and we will get there.
I’m with you!!! I hope we achieve this freedom soon!!!
Not owing money and actually having it is real “Freedom”!!!
.-= Look at what Moby Homemaker wrote blog ..The TV Guide to Interviewing =-.
Moby,
Exactly, and the more I loved at the Credit Card offers I could see how everything that they offer is really a trap rather than a way to be free. And the Credit Card companies know this but figure that people are too stupid to realize, like “Chase Freedom” I can just see the marketing meeting now. Let’s call our new card Freedom so that people can constantly be “chasing” freedom.
Awesome.
We use credit cards – two of them. The Discover card is the primary card because the rewards are better. The Visa Card (through… ugh… Bank of America, for now) is the backup card because not every merchant accepts Discover. We don’t pay our purchases back with interest…
…because we pay the cards off every month.
That’s the key that most Americans that get into trouble with credit cards don’t get. You never pay interest if you pay off the card when it’s due. That means spending within your means, though. We don’t spend more than we earn – so to us, credit cards are a form of convenience only. They allow us to live without carrying cash, which is nice.
.-= Look at what Daniel M. Clark wrote blog ..Geek Dads Weekly #11 – And Then There Were Three… Again =-.
Daniel,
Yes, certainly if you can always pay off your cards each month then yes, you can handle the cards, however I would argue that the same can be achieved with a debit card as can be done with a credit card.
True. But with credit cards, you can get 1-5% back, depending on the card you use. And you do have the option of carrying a balance if you need to. Some years, usually around Christmas, we do carry a balance… but never an amount that takes more than an extra month to catch up on.
We should do a segment on the show about this!
.-= Look at what Daniel M. Clark wrote blog ..Geek Dads Weekly #11 – And Then There Were Three… Again =-.
Daniel,
Yes, a segment on this on the show would be great. While I mostly agree with you on this I find that when I have a Credit card I can easily slip into thinking I can spend whatever I’d like because I can pay it off at the end of the month and I overspend, then a balance gets carried and then it snowballs out of control.
I appreciate your perspective. It has been proven that consumers spend an average of 17% more when using credit versus cash. When the fast food chains began accepting credit cards, the average customer ticket increased from under $5 to almost $8
Bill,
Thank you very much. I did slip today though. I took out the money to pay cash for my car repairs and I tried Dave’s method of asking what the price was for cash. They wouldn’t budge so I used the CC out of spite, if they weren’t going to give me the percent that they would have been charged then they can get charged it, The payment for that IN FULL is going to my credit card electronically. I think things like that when they know that they have you over a barrel are much harder to negotiate. they had my car, I need my car, they have no reason to budge. So I used the card.
I’m switching from chase. The time it takes for them to give me access to my own money is insane.
.-= Look at what Toothhater wrote blog ..Toothless Heart-Throb =-.
Hey there Toothhater,
Yeah chase is one tough one, get rid of em.